
F^i^ 




LETTER 

FROM 

SENATOR PEARCE, OF MARYLAND, 



y 



THE POLITICS OF THE DAY.,^ 



Washington, July 31, 1856. 

My Dear Sir : You ask what part I mean to take in the coming 
preeidential election, and what I think shoiikl be done by ohl whigs 
who have never been attached any other party, and who do not de- 
sire to enter into new political connexions. 

I am well aware of the embarrassments to such persons which 
attend a choice among the candidates for the Presidency now before 
the country. In my own case this embarrassment is sensibly felt. 
My inclinations point one way, a sense of the duty arising from the 
present dangerous condition of domestic politics leads me another way. 

My past relations, political and personal, with Mr. Fillmore, the 
confidence I have always reposed in his integrity and ability, the 
wisdom of his administration, and the conviction I entertain that he 
Is a just national man and free from sectional prejudice, would induce 
me to prefer him to his competitors. Neither do I object to the senti- 
ment of American nationality, properly limited and restrained. In- 
deed I think that our present system has made American citizenship 
too cheap. But I did not approve the mysterious system under which 
the American party, of which he is now the representative, was or- 
ganized; the oaths administered to members upon initiation, and the 
discipline of the order, by which secresy and obedience were secured. 
How far all this has been dispensed with I do not know. The original 
plan of their organization I could not but condemn, as I do the adop- 
tion of any principle which founds a rule of political exclusion upon 
a diversity of religious faith. However modified in these respects 
their plan may now be, it is not necessary for me to inquire. The 
northern wing of the party came into it, as I think, with purposes 
very difierent from those entertained by the rest. They adopted it as 
a cloak to schemes which all of us in Maryland condemn and detest. 
The necessary affiliatioi^' of that wing of the party were with the 
anti-slavery men ; and accordingly we find the mask now thrown off 
by the most of them, and see the development of their plans in such 
a measure as the personal liberty bill of Massachusetts, Avhich nullifies 
a law of Congress, violates the constitutional guarantee for the re- 
covery of fugitive slaves^ and creates the fiercest and most dangerous 
discord between the north and the south. Their members of Congress 



liave for the most part been consolidated with the pernicious party 
miscalled republican, and many of the delegates to their presidential 
convention have deserted to that motley alliance, Avhose triumph would 
be the saddest calamity that ever befel our Union. The com]>aratively 
small portion of the American party which remained after this transfer 
to_ the anti-slavery men, and which has nominated Mr. Fillmore, is 
without power to elect liim, even with the assistance of southern whigs 
or national northern whigs. These, however great their personal 
respect for and confidence in Mr. Fillmore, are under no party obliga- 
tions now to give him their supj^ort, seeing that he has become a 
member and accejited the nomination of a party which repudiates the 
whigs; and, while they would be willing in a contest with their old 
opponents to stand by all their political opinions to the last, "they find 
ample reason in the present condition of parties, in the political 
anarchy which prevails, and in the fear of a sectional and anti-slavery 
triumph, leading to ulterior consequences of .the worst sort, to con- 
sider whether it is not their duty to sacrifice all personal feeling and 
party prejudice for the sake of the Union, and to sustain the nomina- 
tions of the democrats as the only means of defeating the schemes of 
the mad agitators who rule the republican party. 

The contest, it seems to me, lies between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. 
Fremont. Mr. Fillmore's friends, indeed, claim a great reaction in 
his favor ; but I have taken much pains to ascertain what his strength 
is in the free States, and so far I have not been able to satisfy myself 
that he can carry a single one of them. His wise and patriotic con- 
duct while President, which recommended him so strongly to the 
whigs of the south, is regarded by the majority at the north as a 
ftital objection to him. ' It is not moderation and conciliation they 
desire; they think, as one of their leaders said, that the time for com- 
promises has passed. They want, in the President, an instrument to 
punish the south for what they fancy or pretend to be the aggressions 
of the 'Sslave power" upon the north. Mr. Fillmore is too national 
for this purpose, and he must, indeed, be credulous or sanguine in the 
extreme who supposes that the politicians who have misguided and 
inflamed the northern majority will abandon their designs, and re- 
nounce the spoils for which they hunger and thirst, just at the moment 
when, for the first time, they are confident of the success of the one 
and the enjoyment of the other. Mr. Fillmore's strength lies in the 
whig States of the south. If all the southern States should give him 
their votes, ho Avould fail in the election without such assistance from 
the free States as it would be vain to look for. The .clioice, tlien, is 
between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Fremont, and what Maryland whig, 
believing as I do, can hesitate? 

I am not so unjust as to charge all the northern men who join in 
the support of LIr. Fremont wi^li being abolitionists. Ther^^. are men 
among them whom I hold in much respect, while deploring the error 
of judgment into which they have fallen; but the most active and 
influential of their leaders are men who, from perverted judgment or 
inflamed passion, or, what is worse, from deliberate calculation, have 
determined to build up a sectional party, reckless of its peril to the 
Union, once so justly valued, but now estimated far less at the north 



of other nations, and destructive of our own peace, honor, and con- 
cord. I know that many of the leading men of his own party are 
sound and reliable in this respect, and I believe that their conservative 
influence would harmonize with his own disposition. I am the more 
assured of this, because I observe that in his letter of acceptance there 
is no recognition of the resolutions, (which were not considered by 
the convention as forming a part of the platform,) but, on the con- 
trary, a prudent and conservative tone, which met with the approba- 
tion of even the judicious and experienced editors of the National 
Intelligencer — themselves, par excellence, the foes of all fillibustering. 
In an additional article noticing Mr. Buchanan's letter of acceptance, 
they said: 

" We may say, however, that Mr. Buchanan's otncia] letter of acceptance, while not 
expressly repudiating- the extreme and exceptionable doctrines foisted into the democratic 
confessions of faith by the Cincinnati convention, does yet, by its spirit and tenor, incline us 
to hope that he means, if elected, so to construe those doctrines as to disarm them of their 
mischievous significance and evil tendency. Indeed we can give no other meaning than this 
to Mr. Buchanan's declaration v/hen he says that he accepts the ' resolutions constituting the 
platform of principles erected by the convention ' in the same spirit as that which prompts 
his acceptance of the nomination tendered to him by his party, namely, a desire so to dis- 
charge the duties of the high office to which he aspires as ' to allay domestic strife, preserve 
peace and friendship icith foreign nations, and promote the best interests of the republic' " 

At present the prospect is that the conservative whig vote will be 
so divided as to defeat a popular election and throw the decision upon 
the House of Representatives — at all times an event to be deprecated, 
but at this period peculiarly pernicious and dangerous, and threat- 
ening the rudest shock to our system. What the result will be I will 
not venture to predict, but I will say that I do not see the least prob- ' 
ability of Mr. Fillmore's election by the House of Representatives. 
I think, therefore, it would be the part of wisdom and patriotism in 
the whigs (by which I mean those who have affiliated with no (fther 
party) to throw their votes for Mr. Buchanan as the strongest of the 
candidates opposed to the northern sectional party. This they may 
do without renouncing their old political faith, without stain of honor 
or suspicion of apostacy. The motive being the integrity of the 
Union, the defeat of a party which is founded on geographical dis- 
criminations and bound together by dangerous sectional schemes, the 
act will be vindicated by disinterested patriotism. 

For my part, I shall not abjure my political creed, and, having in 
view but the one object which I have stated, I shall hold myself ready 
to take any other course which may be necessary to effect that object. 
Should the hopes of Mr. Fillmore's friends be realized; should it ap- 
pear that he is more likely to carry the great body of the patriotic, but 
quiet people, who generally come to tlie rescue in times of public 
peril ; that he is, in short_, the best able to subdue this storm of sec- 
tional passion and prejudice, I shall rejoice to see him again filling 
the chair of state, ^ut I will not aftect an unalloyed gratification ; 
for I cannot forget that he is the candidate of a party which has pro- 
scribed whigs who were not members of "'the order" — of a party 
which boasted that it had risen on the ruins of the whig and demo- 
cratic parties, and vvdiich has pronounced both of them corrupt. 

Whatever the result, I shall be content if the dangerous excitement 
which threatens our peace and Union can be calmed down, so that the 



g LiBRflRV OF CONGRESS 




extreme opinions whicli have their roots ii 

wither away. Then a liberal forbearanc 

different sentiments may resume their in 

done, if the south and the north are to regara one another as enemies, 

then sooner or later our "house, divided against itself," must fall. 

Then we shall have to say, with Pantheus, 

Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus 
Dardaniffi. 

But ours will be a sadder fate than that of Priam's empire ; for it 
was not the Dardanian people by whom the inevitable doom of Troy 
was fixed. A foreign foe beat down her lofty walls and destroyed the 
high renown of Teucer's race ; but we shall fall by our own suicidal 
hands ; we will kindle the flames which shall destroy the edifice of 
our constitutional Union ; ourselves will break the bonds of harmoni- 
ous interest and fraternal concord which have held us together as one 
" people. May Heaven inspire us with wisdom to avert so sad a catas- 
trophe ! 

Very truly, my dear sir, your friend, 

JAS. ALFRED PEARCE, 
Hon. J, R. Franklin, 

Snoiu Hill, Mainland. 

P. S. I add a letter of Mr. Clay to Rev. Mr. Colton, which shows 
his opinion, in 1843, of the eiiect of the abolition movements of that - 
day: 

Ashland, Stplember 2, 1843. 

My Dear Sir : Allow me to suggest a subject for one of your tracts, wiiicli, treated in 
youBf popular and condensed way, I think would be attended with great and good effect. I 
mean abolition. 

It is manifest that thy ultras of tliat party are extremely mischievous, and are hurrying on 
liie country to fearful consetjuences. They are not to be conciliated by the whigs. En- 
grossed with a single idea, they care for nothing else. They would see the administration of 
the government precipitate the nation into absolute ruin before they would lend a helping 
hand to arrest its career. They treat worst and denounce most those who treat them best, 
who so far agree vvith them as to admit slavery to be an evil. Witness their conduct towards 
Mr. Briggs and Mr. Adams, in Massachusetts, and tov/ards me. 

I will give you an outline of the manner in which 1 would handle it : Show the origin of 
slavery ; trace its introduction to the British government. Show how it is disposed of by the 
federal Constitution ; that it is left exclusively to the States, except in regard to fugitives,, 
direct taxes, and representation. Show that tlie agitation of the question in the free States 
will first destroy all harmon)', and finally lead to disunion, perpetual war, the extinction of 
the African race, ultimate military despotism. 

But the great aim and object ot your tract should be to arpuse the laboring classes in the 
free States against abolition. Depict the consequences to them of immediate abolition- 
The slaves, being free, would be dispersed throughout the Union ; they would enter into 
competition with the free laborer — with the American, the Irish, tlie German — reduce his 
"wages, be confounded with him, and affect his moral and social standing. And, as the ultras 
go both for abolition and amalgamation, show that their object is to unite in marriage the 
laboring white man and the laboring black woman ; to reduce the white laboring man to the 
despised and degraded condition of the black man. 

I would show their opposition to colonization : show its humane, religious, and patriotic 
aims; that they are to separate those whom Gcd has separated Why do the abolitionists 
oppose colonization? To keep and amalgamate together the two races, in violation of God's 
will, and to keep the blacks here, that they may interfere with, degrade, and debase the 
laboring whites. Show that the British government is co-operating with the abolitionists for 
the purpose of dissolving the Union, &:c. You can make a powerful article that will be felt 
fti every extremity of the Union. I am perfectly satisfied it will do great good. Let me 
hear from you on this subject. 

HENRY CLAY. 






(;rr:°!<=o-c«Hs. 



°°"898 3,^6 



